As addressed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/750,800, heart valve replacement is a well-known procedure in which an artificial heart valve prosthesis is implanted in place of a diseased or malfunctioning heart valve. Heart valve prostheses may be mechanical or bioprosthetic. Use of mechanical valves typically requires extensive anticoagulation therapy. The need for anticoagulation therapy can be avoided in general by the use of artificial biological heart valves, such as bovine xenografts. Nevertheless, dystrophic calcification with subsequent degeneration is a cause of failure of such bioprostheses in the long term. When mitral or tricuspid valve replacement is performed, the chordae tendineae are cut, thus leaving the geometry and function of the ventricle impaired and in need of reconstruction.
As an alternative to conventional heart valve replacement operations, diseased and malfunctioning chordae can be repaired by surgically replacing diseased heart chordae with artificial chordae. One known way of replacing a malfunctioning chordae uses a simple suture with a needle on each end of the suture. The suture is stitched through the papillary muscle and secured thereto with a knot. The two ends of the suture are then similarly stitched through the free ends of the valve leaflets. The valve will not function properly if the length of the artificial chordae between the papillary muscle and valve leaflet is overly long or overly short. Replacement chords are discussed more specifically in, for example, U.S. patent application Ser. Nos. 12/750,800 and 12/238,322.